St.Vincent’s still faces fight over associated residential development. In a March 10, 2009 public meeting, Landmarks voted to grant approval for a new hospital on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets in the Greenwich Village Historic District. The site is currently occupied by the 1963 O’Toole Building, for which Landmarks approved demolition in October of 2008. 5 CityLand 158 (Nov. 15, 2008).

Representatives of St. Vincent’s presented an amended design that considered the criticisms the previous design had provoked at the last hearing. 6 CityLand 10 (Feb. 15, 2009). Architect Ian Bader, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, explained that the proposed hospital’s height was further reduced to 286 ft., down from 299 ft. at the last proposal and less than the 329 ft. at the original proposal. Bader also stated that the hospital’s “perceived height” would be 278 ft., since mechanical equipment on the roof would not be visible from the street.

Several other alterations were noted aside from the height. The ground floor was modified with larger windows and extended canopies to “deinstitutionalize” the entrance and improve the building’s interaction with the street. The hospital’s podium was brought level with the adjacent building’s street wall height. Projecting sunshades were removed from patients’ windows on the tower and replaced with louvers. Bader also mentioned that an addition, including a public art installation and external staircase, would be constructed on the building that partly occupies the triangle-shaped lot at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 12th Street. (read more…)